pokemon-paradijs.comHello 6P nation! My name is Jason Milone and this is my first ever attempt to write a tournament report so I hope you enjoy it. My wife Mimsi and I have just begun our second full season of the Pokémon TCG and we have decided this is the year to try to make our Worlds run after having a great campaign last year.
Last year my abilities as a player were starting to come on strong, especially since my first tournament, the Pennsylvania State Championships in 2011, to which I brought a deck that consisted of Wailord TM/Roserade UL/Tangrowth TM/Shaymin UL and still managed to pull off a record of 3-4. But after I found SixPrizes I was able to start learning about the competitive play of the game. With a trip to Nationals that year that didn’t yield anything special, Mimsi and I were looking forward to the 2012 season.
During the 2012 season I honed a lot of my skills in the game, especially deck building, which I now realize is essential for any player to be truly good (net decking can only get you so far). Unfortunately the 2012 season was the season of the “bubble” as I bubbled in every major tournament: Ohio State Championships (6-2), Philadelphia Spring Regionals (5-3), and U.S. National Championships (6-3).
In spite of this I top cut for the first time in my career at a City Championship with Kyurem NVI/Jirachi UL/Archeops NVI as well as winning my first tournament — Butler, PA Spring Battle Roads (6/2/12) with Darkrai DEX/ Tornadus DEX. But also at the conclusion of the season I knew I was headed in the right direction.
pokemon-paradijs.comSo far this season has been a successful one with a 2nd place finish at Butler, PA Fall Battle Roads (9/2/12), losing only to the winner previously mentioned in the “Pokémon Couple” article to a good old fashioned Mewtwo war. The deck I was using was Tornadus EX/Mewtwo EX/Terrakion-EX/Terrakion NVI, which also netted me a 5th place finish at State College, PA Fall Battle Roads (9/8/12).
But after whiffing the Murrysville, PA Fall Battle Roads (9/15/12) with Giratina EX/Ho-Oh EX/Roserade DRX 15 (not that bad by the way) with a 2-3 record I knew it was time to get back to basics, so I swore to make up for that day, and I did.
By successfully judging the Pittsburgh metagame at Murrysville (which is hard to do since I live in State College, PA) I was able to modify my deck I had previously used and turn it into a true champion. I wanted a deck that could attack by turn 2 and one that did not require rare candy to setup, yet still consistent with a high damage output.
The deck I used was Terrakion-EX/Terrakion NVI/Groudon EX, as I realized the strong presence of Darkrai EX/Hydreigon DRX, Eel toolboxes, and big Basic decks based on Darkrai EX. I will get to the specific list later, but first without further ado here is the tournament report!
Round 1: ??? – Victini NVI/Virizion NVI/Shaymin EX
pokemon-paradijs.comThis round was an interesting one as right off the bat I was faced against a V-blast Victini NVI 43 and Virizion NVI.
It was a strange combination as I did not know the true intention of the deck. I was able to get my Terrakion-EX set up pretty quickly to a Pump-up Smash, and used Cilan to set up other Terrakion-EXs and Terrakion NVI as well as Groudon EX. This game was mostly one-sided with the exception of my first Terrakion-EX getting 2HKO’d by 2 successful V-blasts in a row!
1-0
Round 2: ??? – Darkrai EX/Hydreigon DRX
I had played this player the day before and had gotten basically steamrolled with my previous deck. But this time was different.
I setup my Terrakion-EX right away and started rolling. He used Ultra Ball to pull out a Virizion EPO to get off one Giga Drain before I Enhanced Hammered his Blend Energy, causing a big enough setback to where I was getting a KO almost every turn including one successful 1HKO on a Darkrai EX by use of Tool Scrapper + Pump-up Smash. He was almost able to mount a comeback by using Max Potion a few turns in a row, but eventually I drew a Catcher to seal the deal.
2-0
pokemon-paradijs.comRound 3: Joey Gannon – Darkrai EX/Hydregion DRX
Joey is a great guy and a great player who I always seemed to get paired up with in almost every tournament I play (so far this year 3 out of 4 times). I start Terrakion-EX and he starts Darkrai EX. I immediately start attaching and on turn 2 I was able to hit Darkrai EX for 100 via Rock Tumble.
Joey hits some dead-draws after an N the next turn and I am able to take his Darkrai EX down. He lets his Mewtwo EX take a Pump-up Smash the next turn while he begins to set up a Shaymin EX. Next turn he retreats and 1HKOs my Terrakion-EX, at this point I figure that I am in trouble since I have a grass weakness. I am able to Retaliate for 70 on Shaymin EX.
Next turn he uses Juniper and is not able to draw into any Max Potions but he 1HKOs my Terrakion NVI. Next turn I am able to use Groudon EX’s Giant Claw to take out Shaymin EX. At this point I had 2 Prizes left; Joey again uses a Supporter in an attempt to get his Max Potion but does not, so I Juniper and get the Catcher + Giant Claw on Mewtwo EX for the game.
3-0
Round 4: Steve Timko – Empoleon DEX/Accelgor DEX/Mew-EX
Steve is also a regular player at events by AJ and, by his deck choice, the player that I wanted to play the least because of my double weakness (Water/Grass). I start to get my Terrakion-EX charged up right away using Rock Tumble to put damage on one of his Piplups. I hoped to draw into a Catcher to start taking out Shelmets but could not.
He hits some dead-draws that slow his set up so in all he was able to only get off 2 or 3 Deck and Covers (1 of which I was able to Super Scoop Up out of). But eventually Steve ran out of Pokémon and all I needed was an Energy to seal the deal, and I topdecked Cilan.
4-0
Round 5: Bryan Leones – Fluffychomp
The day before in Murrysville, Bryan and I had swore that we would come the next day ready to play and here we were at the top table. I start Groudon EX for the first time all day and I get to go first. I am able to get the first Energy attachment but get Sand Attacked the next turn, so even though I hit the second Energy attachment I fail on the Sand Attack flip.
Though he is able to evolve in Gabite and Dragon Call for another; that is all he had. So I hit my turn 3 Energy attachment and used Giant Claw for the 1HKO. He was able to evolve into Garchomp, but I was able to 2HKO is easily. Bryan is a great guy though and I really had a fun time talking to and playing him. Groudon EX was nice in this matchup because if you can T2 and T3 Tromp, all Garchomps will be in 1HKO range with Giant Claws’ 120 damage.
5-0
pokemon-paradijs.comRound 6: Hoolon Michael Collins – Stunfisk DRX/ Terrakion NVI/ Darkrai EX
My last match of the day was against my first opponent of yesterday, Hoolon Michael Collins. If you know Hoolon, he is a great guy, great player, and is just plain fun to be around. We both start Terrakion NVI and we start building them up manually right away.
On my 2nd turn I was N’d into a hand that had 3 Catchers. I tried to wait a turn by Catchering an Energyless Terrakion NVI, but the next turn I know I needed something, so I used another Catcher and Junipered away the other much to my dismay. However it paid off as I was able to keep getting my Terrakions set up in my next few turns.
Since it was Terrakion vs Terrakion the game was pretty slow-going for a while until we started Knocking Out each other’s Terrakions. As soon as my Terrakion-EX hit the field I was able to get all my benched Pokémon set up with at least 2 Energy each. I was able to keep my Terrakion-EXs out of 2HKO range with the use of Potions and Super Scoop Ups.
He dropped a Darkrai EX because he needed to start getting some damage on the field. He felt it was okay since I had 3 Catchers in my discard pile, but much to my luck I topdecked my final Catcher to take the 2 Prizes on Darkrai EX.
Afterward we had a Prize trade or 2, I used more Potion shenanigans and eventually caused Hoolon to Juniper to his final cards (looking for a PlusPower possibly?) I won the game on Hoolon’s deck out/1HKO on his last Darkrai EX.
6-0
I was able to stay strong and pull it together for my second 1st place finish at Battle Roads.
The List
|
Pokémon – 9 2 Groudon EX |
Trainers – 38 4 N 2 Cilan
4 Potion 3 Super Scoop Up 3 Switch |
Energy – 13 13 F |
Deck Explanations
Since I made the deck the night before the tournament I was only able to playtest it in 2 matches against a good friend and player: Nolan Wilbur. So why did I include some of the cards I did?
Yes; Cilan. I wanted to build a Fighting deck and realized probably the most important thing was to NOT whiff Energy attachments (which was only one time all day thanks to Cilan). Thanks to Cilan I was always able to get the energy I needed to attach for turn, using it for Pump-up Smash was honestly just a bonus.
Since I absolutely hate using Cheren or Bianca, I usually run 4-4-4 Juniper-N-Random Receiver. But in testing those 2 games I was finding myself using N or Juniper to throw away good hands looking for that Energy attachment, this is where I thought of Cilan. With the Supporter line I was running, using 2 Cilan was incredibly enough of a happy medium between N and Juniper; after all, Energy is always a good thing.
I have to say that Cilan was my MVP of the day, as often times I was able to setup my ENTIRE bench with Energy (which also looked very threatening).
Groudon EX
Originally I had 3 Mewtwo EX and 1 Stunfisk DRX in my list. Since I didn’t run DCE to support Mewtwo and was only relying on Energy Switch, I decided to drop Mewtwo all together when I was writing out my list just before registration.
I needed a replacement and Nolan suggested I put in Groudon EX, which helped a lot to meet the 1HKO range to Mewtwo; after all, it could 2HKO and make the 170 HP damage mark. Not to mention Darkrai EX’s weakness to Fighting was also good, but also it can setup KOs on Garchomp and Empoleon as well as 1HKO Gabite. Special thanks to Nolan for helping me with this change.
When you think about it, Potion and Eviolite essentially do the same thing: keep your Pokémon alive for one extra turn, turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO; the only difference is that Potion cannot be Tool Scrapped, which was great and proved to make a difference in all of my games, especially the last.
Also without the use of Eviolite I was able to run Exp. Share to keep my Energy in play. This was a fantastic choice that I certainly don’t regret. Potion came in close second as my MVP.
What? You run NO POKEMON SEARCH? How can you!
With the amount of prize denial I had (SSU, Potion, and even to an extent Enhanced Hammer) I found no need to run search cards, and still often I was able to get down multiple Pokémon, thanks to the on average 8 Ns played per game, allowing me to shuffle draw and find those Pokémon. All in all this was not really an issue and let me fit in so many other helpful cards.
pokemon-paradijs.comTo get past those pesky Eviolites, proved to be very helpful. I can stand not having the PlusPower for a 1HKO, but I can’t stand 2HKO or 3HKOing something that should be a one or a two shot. With the strong presence of Terrakion NVI in the format I knew decks would be Eviolite heavy to protect Darkrai EX, so this was a good move for me.
In conclusion I had a great time at all of my Battle Roads. I only chose to do 4 since the best finish limit is 6. So I come out of Battle Roads with 33 CPs, a 17-5 record, and going in to Fall Regionals with a full head of steam. I hope to see all of you at the top tables this year!
Pros
- My wife Mimsi supporting me every step of the way.
- Our babysitters for both Saturday and Sunday.
- Cilan!
- Potion!
- Thanks to Nolan Wilbur for the great last minute advice!
- AJ Schumacher for running such smooth events!
- All my opponents for having a good time!
- Topdecking Catchers at the right time!
Cons
- Gas money.
Really cool article, I too was thinking of making a fighting deck but was so worried about constancy, especially against the Fast-Meta-Decks currently in the format. I found some interesting inclusions, like the use of potion, wow what a choice and ima certainly give it a go as I generally run eviolites (which then result in the exclusion of Exp.Share)
One Question I do have for you is, Have you tested against the speed of Eelekrtik?
Keep up the Awesome Run of form, and Plus 10 points for Deck originality!
Well Done!
thanks!
Have you tested against Eelectrik based decks though?
I haven’t yet but I’m sure it would be even if not in my favor depeding on their techs. As long as I can take the eels out of any eel deck, then I feel pretty good.
“I was able to hit Darkrai EX for 100 via Rock Tumble.” Isn’t the attack unaffected by resistance?
just resistance not weakness
A really interesting article, I really enjoyed reading about your unusual card choices – it’s nice to see some different trainers/supporters seeing play and actually working!
thanks!
Wouldn’t you have a lot of trouble against decks with heavy Mewtwo? For example, Eelektrik with 3-4 Mewtwo. Definitely not trying to say your deck looks bad. Even if it’s a BR, can’t really argue with a 6-0 win, so congrats to you for sure on that. Just in theory, thinking about 2+ Mewtwo coming at you and hitting heavy sounds difficult to handle.
well, I would definitely be hoping that I got off to a fast start just like I did in all of my games. The things that would help with the mewtwo match up was the ability to get energy down so quickly so I would always have something ready, Terrakion NVI can really help by 2HKOing mewtwo or setting up a KO with Groudon. But understand if you gave me 4-6 turns I could have 3 Terrakion NVI on the bench with 2 energy each, and a fully charged Terrakion EX and Groudon EX thanks to Cilan and Exp Share. Enhanced Hammer was also in there to not only even the matchup with Shaymin EX/ Virizion EPO, but also even the matchup with mewtwo; as well as potion to some extent to put me out of range.
Nice article. I really like Cilan with Terrakion ex as well. Your potion idea is cool also. Playing a similar deck on the online game, I’ve started to see a ton of darkrai/ sableye with a bunch of hammers that really disrupt things so well that even the weakness doesn’t hurt too much. It can be very challenging to setup.Your opponent being able to hammer away an energy, then recover an eviolite to keep darkrai alive and another hammer, plus survive the 50 terrakion dmg with sableye, makes it tough to get any traction. So I see some early setup issues that can really derail you. I admit in every loss to the darkrai/sableye decks they had incredible starts, drew into everything they needed. And again, my list has some differences, and you succeeded with yours. Just anticipating some possible wrinkles. Super Scoop Up seems key in the accelgor matchup, props for that as well.
I’m aware of the darkrai/sableye decks, but I was comfortable playing this because I saw them losing popularity (mostly ever saw them online). But once again I wasn’t really concerned with all my what ifs, I just wanted to take something that was going to be good and consistent for me.
Did you really find exp share useful?
Most decent players in my meta carry at least 2 tool scrapper, which means that exp share goin bye bye most of the time.
I’ve been trying to make a ho-oh accelerated version of this deck for some time now, as you can come out with a turn 1 100 dmg on darkrai with terrakion ex. Furthermore, the fire from ho-oh makes up for the grass weakness. However, seeing how jam packed this list is makes me think otherwise.
From your experience with this deck, are there 6 spaces you can cut without sacrificing too much?
tool scrapper does get rid of experience share, but the opponent may not draw into it when they need to. There were scrappers at this brs from what I remember, but I think that having experience share is more of a luxury. There are 2 forms of acceleration in his deck in exp share and pump up smash. the 2 key cards he mentioned, cilan and potion, ensure that you have the pump up smash acceleration going even if exp share gets scrapped away. Cilan helps so that one would not miss out on their attachment for turn and potion keeps terrakion ex alive long enough to pull off the pump up smash accel. Those 2 key cards were great additions to the deck and his 6-0 showing was well deserved. This kind of thinking outside the box is great for the current format.
The exp share was useful, but sometimes you can’t always be scared to play cards becuase of what ifs. I did feel like I had a dual consistency there with Pump-up Smash and Exp. Share. The list was pretty tight as it is but if anything you might be able to drop the energy switches, but they help with the sigilyph match up if you need to get up a terrakion NVI quickly.
What is the “bubble season?” I was confused
what he meant by that is when there are like 10 people who have a record of 4-2 and only a few 4-2s actually make it into top cut. Bubbling is where you are one of the 4-2s who don’t make it into top cut.
Yeah you pretty much got it. Pretty much where your record is sufficient to make top cut but you don’t because of resistance.
can use 4 terrekion ex and 4 terrakion nv?
If youd like I suppose. This deck will really shine post-boundaries crossed with the addition of landorus ex.
i just love how people are quick to dismiss cilan, then this deck just proves that every card has a specific niche. it is clearly usable, and kudos to you!
thanks!
After testing this quite a bit, I noticed that it’s hardest matchup is Ray/Eels and Mewtwo aggression, which is kinda scary since those are gonna be heavily played in these next two weeks. Besides hitting awesome catchers early game, you have really no answer to Ray ex OHKOs besides terrakion retaliates. This deck would also be in deep trouble against a early aggression mewtwo deck like Ho-oh. Mewtwo could most definitely kill terrak ex b4 you can pump up smash charge accelerate, leaving you in trouble.
This article was awesome, and I said “ERMAHGERD, err dernt herrv errnerrf mernerr ferr serm Terrakions”. (Translated from Hurr Durr English, it means “OHMYGOD, I don’t have enough money for some Terrakions). I’m jelly that you had Terrakions, because my pulls are the worst among the players in my area. I only pulled a Zekrom EX from a pack, no other EXs. You should make it to 2013 worlds.